I did not have a lot of expectations going into Deus Ex: Human Revolution because I never played Deus Ex and I had not really read much about the game.  Deus Ex: Human Revolution just happened to be releasing at a time when there was not a lot out and a few friends were talking about it so decided to give it a shot.  I had a lot of fun playing through Deus Ex: Human Revolution.  I finished the game on Normal at about 26 hours according to Raptr.

What makes Deus Ex: Human Revolution really stand out for me is that in every situation (other than boss fights – more on that later) there are at least 3 way, if not more, to complete the objective at hand.  It all depends on how you want to augment your character.  You can hack your way through taking over every computer, camera, turret and robot.  You can sneak through getting past entire sections by looking for hidden side paths.  Or, you can make character a tough soldier and just shoot everyone in site.

The game clearly is designed for stealth game play through.  You get much more XP going stealth/non-lethal, and until you get at least a few upgrades the fights can be very hard to win.  I started off going mostly stealth and non-lethal.  There are some points this is very tough as you need to memorize enemy movement patterns and camera coverage.  For the first 1/3 to 1/2 I had fun doing this while hacking everything I could find.  Then I ran into some enemies whose actions in the game made me and and I started going more lethal.  I still would sneak around but then if enemies were open for shooting I’d take the shot. I still hacked pretty much everything in the game (I could not stop myself.  Even if I had the code for a panel I would hack it for the extra XP).

There were only 2 issues that I had with the game.  First, if you do not do the side missions before the main quests you lose the option to do them. In some cases it gives you a warning that going to an area will not allow you to return but other times you start a mission and then when it finished your side missions are just gone. So, be sure to always to any side missions first.  I generally do that anyway but there were some that were really far away so I figured I would do them later in the first act of the game.  Found out the hard way that I was not going to be doing them.  And since the main mission I did was over 2 hours of play time I did not really want to replay that section. Not a huge deal but still frustrating.

The other issue I have with Deus Ex: Human Revolution are the boss fights.  There are 3 main ones and there is no way around them.  In every single one you have to kill the enemy boss to continue.  And all 3 of them take a lot of damage finish.  It is weird that in a game where there are so many choices for every other area that the boss fights have just 1 way to win. It is especially frustrating if you’ve got your character upgraded for stealth and hacking since you are going to get destroyed by the bosses. The developers could easily have added hackable turrets or stealth related options to the boss fights but they did not.  It seems like a huge oversight on their part.  Not only do you have to kill the bosses but you have to do it with guns or explosions.  I got close enough to use melee attacks on a couple of the bosses and they deflected every single one.  So, stock up on grenades before fighting the bosses.

The game as a whole is great and well worth be playing.  To anyone who plays on the hardest setting and goes non-lethal with no detection I’m impressed. You have way more patience than I do.  Fr the rest of us normal people keep a few augmentation points on hand so you can upgrade to fit the situation at hand.